Sealed Knot to Extend Range of Conflicts it will Re-enact

Facing reduced membership numbers and a dwindling public awareness, The Sealed Knot, the UK’s largest historic battle re-enactment society, has decided to break with over 40 years of its tradition and stage re-enactments of conflicts other than the battles of the English Civil War (1642-1651).

Founded in 1968 by military historian Brigadier Peter Young, the Sealed Knot has been primarily concerned with staging Civil War battles in 17th century costume at or near their original locations, but that narrow focus is now thought to be at the root of the current problems.

“We’ve been fighting the Civil War much longer than Cromwell ever did,” observed long-term member John Rawton, “and we’ve pretty much done it to death – it’s time we moved on. Edgehill and Naseby don’t mean much to the younger generation. We need to work harder to reconnect with people if we are to survive as a viable re-enactment association.”

With that in mind, the group announced in the latest edition of its official journal, Orders of the Daye, that from this summer forth, the society would be holding “musters” (gatherings) at Wetherspoon pubs across England to re-enact very recent conflicts - sometimes only days old.

“As an historical society, any event in the past is essentially within our remit. However recent these conflicts may be, we feel it is our job to re-enact them in authentic costume so that the local people can get a feel for their immediate history,” said Rawton, going on to point out that, “even though these fights only occurred within the past week or so, it is often no less a challenge to piece together the ebb and flow of battle than it is to map out the cavalry movements at the Battle of Marston Moor.

“Like that time at The Cap in Hand last Saturday. Most researchers originally believed that Dave had been going round telling all his mates he’d done Kelly up the wrong-un, and that’s why Kelly’s brother, Chris had come in and fronted him. Recent evidence, though, suggests that Dave had been winding Chris up about something else that nobody seems to want to talk about but didn’t have nothing to do with Kelly and that she hadn’t even done nothing especially not with Dave anyway because he's a right tosser.
After that it all turned agro with Chris screaming he was going to fuck Dave up, then Dave – grabbing a chair pinned Chris against the wall, leading to Chris's mates getting Dave in a headlock and taking him into the outside bit with the picnic tables. Somehow Dave got free and ran back in to have another go at Chris, this time joined by big gay Rob, little Rob and Swifty. The police arrived soon after that. How the window got broken is still disputed among scholars, though.

“As you can see, this is a breath of fresh air for the military historian, and by re-enacting the fight, we can help locals gain insight into their recent history and perhaps understand themselves better.

“The added bonus,” commented Rawton, “is that our very presence often seems to lead to violence directed at us, giving the society the chance to later re-enact fights we actually took part in.”

@Oxbridge...one of my history teachers was very much a fan of the Civil War period, and so my education was a bit skewed. He specialised in the same neck of the woods as your book, so you may recognise his name.

After the unsuccessful launch of their "Wetherspoon Musters" project, The Sealed Knot are now no longer even insisting that the conflicts they re-enact have to involve actual physical violence. Explains an increasingly desperate John Rawton, "Look, we'll even come round your house and re-enact any big arguments you've had. No? Or when you swore at the radio? Seriously - no job too small...We'll re-enact it in the clothes you were wearing at the time...basically if it involves any kind of agression, and was in the past, we'll dress up and re-enact it...please?"

This is a bloody good idea Golgo, and with a bit of reworking it'd make a great article. Perhaps you could detail the kid of conflicts that the Sealed Knot are looking into? Maybe some of England's more successful wars, in order to boost national morale? Perhaps a re-enactment of the 1966 world cup?

No...just pub fights...I thought about other angles - having them re-enact wars in real time, right next to the actual war...maybe in the next field...but the article - already quite long - would have gotten out of hand. I liked to think of the Sealed Knot in this downward spiral of aspirations, ending up offering to re-enact minor domestic tiffs, and even the odd flounce...basically, I thought smaller was funnier.

...I'm not against my stuff being reworked, although I did ask Oxy not to repost it tidied up under his own name (albeit with credit given to Golgo13 at the end)...I asked that he put comments and suggestions on the original thread...anyway, if you want to have a go, run with it!